Dragon Con: The birth and growing pangs of a nerd pilgrimage

By Ann Hoevel and Emanuella Grinberg, CNN

Updated 4:08 PM ET, Fri August 30, 2013

Photos: Dragon Con 201338 photos

Dragon Con 2013 – Two people dressed as Spider-Man high-five during the Dragon Con parade in downtown Atlanta on Saturday, August 31. The 27th annual sci-fi and fantasy convention is expected to draw more than 57,000 people.

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Photos: Dragon Con 201338 photos

Dragon Con 2013 – A man dressed as Super-Man walks in the parade with other characters from DC Comics.

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Photos: Dragon Con 201338 photos

Dragon Con 2013 – People watch the parade from balconies at the Hyatt Regency.

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Photos: Dragon Con 201338 photos

Dragon Con 2013 – People dressed as the Pimp Priest and the Hip-Hop Stormtrooper attend the parade.

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Photos: Dragon Con 201338 photos

Dragon Con 2013 – A group of people dressed as soldiers march in the parade.

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Photos: Dragon Con 201338 photos

Dragon Con 2013 – A person in character as the creature from the "Alien" films is interviewed during the parade.

Dragon Con 2013 – Stephen Taylor poses as North (Santa Claus) from the movie "Rise of the Guardians" in front of a panel of judges and a large crowd on Friday, August 30. He won Best Prop. The Friday Night Costuming Contest started in 2006 to give Dragon Con attendees a chance to show off all the time and effort they put in to making their costumes.

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Photos: Dragon Con 201338 photos

Dragon Con 2013 – A participant walks on stage as a character from the video game "Elder Scrolls: Skyrim."

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Dragon Con 2013 – Devon Baker won Best Professional as Lioness ("Lion King") at the costume contest.

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Dragon Con 2013 – Tawnya Hicks-Letts wins Best Overall as Skeksil, of the Skeksis, from "The Dark Crystal."

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Dragon Con 2013 – This participant dressed as Sister Paula Souwauski from the novel "Trinity Blood" for the contest.

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Dragon Con 2013 – This participant dressed up as Isaac Clarke in his Witness suit from the video game "Dead Space 3."

Story highlights

The con appeals to a broad spectrum of subcultures from passionate fan base

Dragon Con has taken steps to distance itself from controversial cofounder Ed Kramer

It took John and Jean Mayes of Richmond, Virginia, less than two hours to realize that they were woefully unprepared for their first Dragon Con in 2006.

The first hint came as they unloaded their car in front of the downtown Atlanta Hyatt hotel for the South's biggest science fiction and fantasy convention. Guests unloaded box after box of costumes from their vehicles, "as if they were clown cars," John Mayes recalls. "They just kept coming."

Alas, the Mayeses brought only one costume each: his Sandtrooper outfit and her biker scout regalia.

Then, there were the sights and sounds inside the hotel. And the smells ... Thousands of excited sci-fi and fantasy fans, many in costume, crowding into elevators, bars, hotel rooms and lobbies, gleefully reuniting and posing for pictures, makes everything a little more odoriferous, he said.

The Mayeses are members of the 501st Legion, an international costuming group known for showing up at parades dressed as Star Wars characters, so they're used to big groups of stormtroopers and Darth Vaders.

Dragon Con program art through the years 25 photos

Dragon Con program art through the years25 photos

Dragon Con program art through the years – Dragon Con first opened its doors in 1987 to about 1,400 science-fiction and fantasy enthusiasts in an Atlanta hotel. This year's convention is expected to draw 55,000 fans. Each year, organizers publish a convention program with eye-catching cover art from a variety of sources: popular novels, comics and a few original illustrations. The first program from 1987 featured art by Robert Gould that was also used for the paperback cover of Michael Moorcock's novel "A Messiah at the End of Time."

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Dragon Con program art through the years25 photos

Dragon Con program art through the years – "Journey to the Gathering" by Larry Elmore in 1988

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Dragon Con program art through the years25 photos

Dragon Con program art through the years – "Lord Protector" by Michael Whelan in 1989

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Dragon Con program art through the years25 photos

Dragon Con program art through the years – "Above Top Secret" by Douglas Chaffee in 1990

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Dragon Con program art through the years25 photos

Dragon Con program art through the years – "Swan Song" by Thomas Canty in 1992

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Dragon Con program art through the years25 photos

Dragon Con program art through the years – "Kalea" by Keith Parkinson in 1993

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Dragon Con program art through the years25 photos

Dragon Con program art through the years – Cover art by Dave McKean, Jeff Jones, Jon Muth, George Pratt, Walt Simonson and Kent Williams in 1994

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Dragon Con program art through the years25 photos

Dragon Con program art through the years – "Lookout" by Michael Whelan in 1995

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Dragon Con program art through the years25 photos

Dragon Con program art through the years – "Tam Lin" by Charles Vess in 1996

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Dragon Con program art through the years25 photos

Dragon Con program art through the years – "The Dragon Slayer" by Greg and Tim Hildebrandt in 1997

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Dragon Con program art through the years25 photos

Dragon Con program art through the years – "Red Dragon" by Roger Dean in 1998

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Dragon Con program art through the years25 photos

Dragon Con program art through the years – "Dune: House Atreides" by Stephen Youll in 1999

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Dragon Con program art through the years25 photos

Dragon Con program art through the years – "Hero and Dragon" by Yoshitaka Amano in 2000

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Dragon Con program art through the years25 photos

Dragon Con program art through the years – "Dragon Angel" by Syd Mead in 2001

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Dragon Con program art through the years25 photos

Dragon Con program art through the years – "Bardo Being" by Alex Grey in 2002

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Dragon Con program art through the years25 photos

Dragon Con program art through the years – "Spawn of the Dragon" by Jim Steranko in 2003

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Dragon Con program art through the years25 photos

Dragon Con program art through the years – "Pink Dragon" by Olivia in 2004

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Dragon Con program art through the years25 photos

Dragon Con program art through the years – "Lair of the Dragon" by Arthur Suydam in 2005

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Dragon Con program art through the years25 photos

Dragon Con program art through the years – "The Huntress" by Larry Elmore in 2006

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Dragon Con program art through the years25 photos

Dragon Con program art through the years – "Dawn" by Joseph Michael Linsner in 2007

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Dragon Con program art through the years25 photos

Dragon Con program art through the years – "Glaurong" by Stephen Hickman in 2008

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Dragon Con program art through the years25 photos

Dragon Con program art through the years – "Troubles With Heroes" by Tara McPherson in 2009

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Dragon Con program art through the years – "St. George and the Dragon" by Donato Giancola in 2010

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Dragon Con program art through the years – "Gift From the Sea" by Michael Whelan in 2011

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Dragon Con program art through the years – "The Dragon Empress" by Dan dos Santos in 2012

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EXPAND GALLERY

But the scene at Dragon Con was a whole new universe.

"You walk into a hotel, you see a Klingon high-fiving Spider-Man and talking to Poison Ivy," said John Mayes, an alarm system programmer. "It's a great shock. It's something you won't see anywhere else in the world."

San Diego Comic-Con might draw more ticket-buyers, press and bigger Hollywood names, but Dragon Con appeals to a broader spectrum of subcultures from a more passionate fan base. For 25 years, the convention has built a reputation of acceptance and appreciation of all things nerdy, growing from a crowd of 1,400 in one hotel in its first year to an event spread out among six hotels in the heart of downtown Atlanta. Organizers say Dragon Con is expected to draw at least 55,000 people this year based on pre-ticket sales alone.

But, a convention created by nerds for nerds is bound to be complicated. As it enters its 26th year, longtime fans and attendees wonder whether Dragon Con's organizers and massive volunteer staff can keep up with swelling attendance and remain a family-friendly environment where decidedly adult parties take place after hours.

For a convention that happens in hotels instead of a city convention center, there's an atmosphere of freedom, fueled by world-class costuming, camaraderie and alcohol.

"It's not like Comic-Con, where it's 8 in the morning until 8 at night," Mayes said. "This is 24 hours a day for four days, where we take over Atlanta."

Behind the party, management squabbles and the demands of an ever-growing event strained organizers, who volunteered their time for years without drawing a paycheck. Adding to the stress and tainting public perception of the event were allegations of child molestation against a convention cofounder.

Initially, friends and allies of Ed Kramer's rallied in his defense, but support waned over the years as he filed grievances against his jailers and motions to postpone his trial. McNeill Stokes, a lawyer for Kramer, said his client wants to go to trial and maintains his innocence. On Monday, a December trial date was set, 13 years after Kramer's first arrest.

While some con-goers were rankled by the convention's previous association with a man accused of child molestation, others remained unaware of -- or unconcerned -- by the controversy. And as fans converge upon Atlanta again this weekend, the show, obviously, has gone on.

"(The fans) have all grown with the convention. We know what it's there for. We know what happened in the past. I don't think it's an issue anymore," Mayes said.

The dragon's first roar

The seed of Dragon Con was planted in 1986 during a meeting of comic book store owner Pat Henry and a cabal of like-minded fans of science fiction and fantasy.

The meeting was convened by Kramer, who invited friends and associates he knew through science fiction and gaming clubs, including the Dragon Alliance of Gamers and Role-Players, the inspiration behind the convention's name. Henry says he was the outsider who was brought in for his experience managing a vendor hall at another gaming convention.

The goal was to start a convention where science-fiction fans, gamers and comic book readers could revel in their obsessions -- open forums about who would win a battle between comic book heroes Hulk and Thor, for example -- without having to explain themselves. The dream was to find one hotel that would host them and "keep Mr. Normal out of there," Henry said.

"Then we could really kick."

As chairman, Kramer invited guests like Gary Gygax, creator of Dungeons & Dragons, the game that revolutionized role-playing; Richard Garriott, creator of the computer game "Ultima"; and notable fantasy writer Michael Moorcock.

Author and horror film aficionado Anthony Taylor attended the first Dragon Con in October 1987 for just a day. He saw Moorcock and Eric Bloom from Blue Öyster Cult performing "Black Blade" on stage.

"I went, all right, so this is maybe more than just a gaming show. Maybe next year I'll come to the whole thing," he said. He has attended every Dragon Con since.

The first convention was something of a success, Henry said. With big-name guests and 1,400 ticket-holders, it was a healthy start, and they were encouraged and moved forward.

Henry was the self-described "belt and suspenders guy" who loved accounting and working behind the scenes. Kramer was the leader and public face of the convention who conducted himself like a "carnival barker," Henry said.

In 1993, Dragon Con officially incorporated in the state of Georgia, according to court documents, with Kramer and Henry the majority stakeholders. It made sense, Henry said, "since we were the two working the hardest." Most of the original board members from that first meeting made up the minority stakeholders, Henry said.

"We were the two that were absolutely dedicated to not letting Dragon Con fail at that point. Atlanta needed a nice convention, and that's what we were going to do," Henry said.

By 1998, Dragon Con had found a place on Atlanta's annual convention calendar. Other conventions that draw fans of science fiction and technology like World Con, E3 and Comdex had all called the city home at some point, and Dragon Con was starting to feel like a natural fit.

More hotels signed multiyear contracts to block off rooms for Dragon Con attendees, allowing more tickets to be sold. The star power grew as well, with 1998 panels featuring guests including Ray Bradbury, Ray Harryhausen and Forrest Ackerman, a rarity for a convention anywhere at the time, Taylor said.

"There have been a lot of moments where I was like, 'I can't believe this is happening in Atlanta,' " he said.

Then came the guys wearing armor.

Albin Johnson was recovering from a car accident that cost him a leg. Daydreams of "Star Wars" kept his spirits up, and a fledgling Internet fueled a community of fellow fans. Johnson wanted to meet his friends at 1998 Dragon Con and, if the Force was with him, start a club of Stormtroopers. He would call it the 501st Squad.

He made a logo and got a 3-foot-by-3-foot foam board, "thinking we could have a flag to rally behind," Johnson said.

But, when he showed up in the lobby, no one was interested. Even Anthony Daniels, the actor who played C-3P0 in the "Star Wars" movies, refused to pose for a picture with the sign, he says.

But he managed to stoke the interest of a few fellow fans, and a movement began. Over the years, he drew more followers at the convention and beyond; today, the 501st counts 10,000 members from 48 countries, Johnson said. Members dress as Stormtroopers and use their powers for good to promote Star Wars fandom and raise money for local charities and volunteer groups.

The 501st is a now a Dragon Con fixture; the groups of Stormtroopers have even been known to associate with Klingons, Mayes joked.

A friend in trouble

By 2000, Pat Henry and his wife, Sherry, were feeling beaten down by Dragon Con after years of negotiating with hotels, working with celebrities and running day-to-day operations during the convention in addition to his day job running a comic book store. In their second-floor room in the Hyatt, they took a quiet moment to reflect.

"We're too old for this. This hurts too badly. We are way too heavily invested in this thing," Henry said, reflecting on the crux of their discussion.

And yet, below them, they heard the clomping of thousands of convention-goers' feet on the brick lobby floor. As they peered downstairs to watch the crowd of revelers, the 501st appeared, escorting Darth Vader and Boba Fett actors David Prowse and Jeremy Bullock to a panel.

The crowd went nuts and parted "like the Red Sea," Henry recalled.

"Sherry and I look, and we shake our heads, and we say, 'we can't quit,' " he said. "It was really moving."

But then in October 2000, Kramer was arrested and charged with four counts of child molestation involving two teen brothers in Gwinnett County, Georgia. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Henry's unhesitating reaction was to support him. Henry never observed such unsettling behavior in his friend, he said. Henry had two young daughters whom Kramer seemed to care about. Kramer was a counselor for troubled children.

"He would have been one of the six guys to carry me to my grave in a box," Henry said with a pained look on his face. "But I was sucked in, and I believed him, for a long time."

So did others in the gaming and convention circuit. In the immediate aftermath, Kramer resigned as CEO, and Henry agreed to take over as chairman, but only if he received a paycheck -- the first time anyone managing the event would get paid, Henry said.

The salary was the least of the group's worries. They had just signed aggressive deals with large downtown hotels to fill rooms for future Dragon Cons.

Dragon Con was stigmatized after Kramer's indictments, despite Kramer's protestations of innocence. Henry did his best to keep Dragon Con safe by staying silent toward the press and reassuring the convention's business associates.

As years passed and Kramer did not go to trial, Henry began to lose faith that his old friend was innocent. As soon as he entered Gwinnett County Jail, Kramer began filing grievance after grievance again his jailers and motions to delay his trial, citing medical conditions.

"I started thinking, you know, he sure isn't trying very hard to get tried," he said of Henry's requests to delay the trial.

In 2002, amid steadily growing attendance, a new event sprang up on a sunny Saturday morning that was destined to become a mainstay of the convention and an Atlanta tradition: the Dragon Con parade.

Conceived by Henry and friend Rob Pauley, the parade was supposed to drive traffic to Dragon Con's vendor halls, which had just been moved to a new hotel. Already gaining traction as a costuming destination, Dragon Con put its best-dressed out in Centennial Olympic Park. Led by bagpipers, the parade ended in the Marriott Marquis, at the bottom of the escalators at entrance of the exhibit halls.

It worked like a charm, Henry said, and the parade route was lengthened the next year.

Parading costumers create quite a spectacle, and before long the number of onlookers crowded on Peachtree Street's sidewalks began to rival the convention's ticket sales. In 2012, the Atlanta Police Department estimated parade crowds at 80,000 people. Dragon Con registration counted 52,000 tickets sold that year.

The parade also contributed to Dragon Con's reputation as a premier venue for professional cosplayers, or master costume-makers who spend hundreds of hours employing skilled trades such as wig-sculpting, metallurgy and special-effects makeup techniques on their creations. Usually, they compete in contests worldwide or appear as paid models or entertainers, but at Dragon Con, they could show off their handiwork for sheer enjoyment.

"I feel a freedom at Dragon Con that I don't feel anywhere else," said professional cosplayer Yaya Han, whose passion is manga and anime. "I felt like I could dress up in any kind of costume that I wanted from any kind of genre."

The convention has a reputation for spectacles of all kinds, including the amorous sort. There are even speed dating events for singles who can tell the difference between a set of Spock ears and an elf costume.

"It's definitely an adult convention after 9 o'clock," said Mayes, the 501st member.

As chairman, Henry decided to take the programming in a family-friendly direction, both to meet the evolution of fandom and for fans who were growing up and having kids of their own. Buoyed by Harry Potter and "Twilight" fandom, programming for young adult literature and youth-oriented television became permanent hallmarks of the convention.

It's a formula that seems to work for attendees who don't want to leave the kids behind. What better way to inspire kids than to take them to hear a panel about "Twilight" and later, hear Monty Python alum Terry Gilliam talk about his films?

"Beyond nerd culture and passing it on one generation to the next, it's just an amazing opportunity to show a kid a choice of careers or hobbies," Taylor said.

But in the meantime, another Georgia teen had come forward with allegations that Kramer had touched him inappropriately. The incidents allegedly occurred between 1996 and 2000, leading to Kramer being re-indicted in 2003 on six counts of child molestation related to the three boys.

Kramer continued to profess his innocence; he also remained uninvolved in Dragon Con. Kramer's lawyer claims that Henry and the remaining shareholders started taking steps to oust him from Dragon Con's board by trying to buy him out. When Kramer refused, they simply stopped paying him royalties, Kramer's lawyer McNeill Stokes said.

"They tried to squeeze him out," Stokes said.

In 2009, Kramer filed the first of two lawsuits against Dragon Con, accusing Henry of misusing profits for personal gain and for failing to give him his fair share.

Henry acknowledges trying to buy Kramer out in order to disassociate the convention from the allegations. He also said Kramer turned him down three times.

Enter Shatner and Nimoy

The con was growing by leaps and bounds even as its creators wrangled over ownership. Henry tried to up its profile through booking last-minute celebrity guests. One of his favorites was when William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy -- Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock from "Star Trek" -- attended the 2009 convention.

Robert Duncan McNeill of "Star Trek: Voyager" had canceled, but his agent offered to call another "Star Trek" personality. Much to everyone's surprise, Shatner agreed to come.

They arranged for Shatner to arrive in Atlanta on Thursday night and to do panels Friday and autographs Saturday morning so he could leave by noon. But the legendary television actor ended up staying on, crashing a panel for Nimoy's science show "In Search Of" and causing a Twitter frenzy.

"Bill didn't leave till Tuesday, and then he canceled his flight, took a car, hell, I don't know where he went," Henry said.

This year, Shatner is back at Dragon Con, and his co-star George Takei will be attending, too.

"I'm putting them on a panel together, obviously," Henry said.

New allegations surface

By 2011, Dragon Con was bringing in more than $40 million in revenue to Atlanta, primarily through dining and lodging, according to the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau. Attendance had been steadily growing for years. As a privately held company, Dragon Con has declined to disclose revenues, but a four-day ticket this year costs $130.

Then, Kramer, who had agreed to remain under house arrest as a condition to being released on bail, was found in a hotel room in Connecticut with a minor in May 2011. He was arrested and extradited back to Georgia.

By then, some Dragon Con fans had had enough. Petitions to boycott Dragon Con were circulated. And, Henry said, that's when Dragon Con decided to do whatever it would take to divorce itself from the co-founder.

On July 8, Dragon Con became a new company, Dragon Con Inc., by merging assets with the old company and omitting its controversial shareholder from the new one. Kramer has since filed a lawsuit seeking to declare the merger invalid, alleging that the plan is "specifically calculated to squeeze out Plaintiff Kramer as a stockholder in the surviving corporation."

Others, however, had already moved on, long regarding Kramer as a completely separate entity from Dragon Con.

"That one person, that one bad egg, doesn't mess up the entire convention for everyone else. I think the majority of the fans have reconciled and gotten over it," Mayes said.

On Monday, Kramer appeared in a Gwinnett County courtroom for a hearing in which both sides agreed that he was ready to stand trial, despite a long list of maladies.

The convention he helped found continues to grow into a destination for generations of sci-fi obsessives.

On Thursday, Mayes, his wife and their son, 11-year-old John Jr., arrived at the Marriott Marquis for their eighth Dragon Con since 2006 and their son's first. The convention didn't really start until Friday, but like many others, they didn't want to lose second of potential people-watching time.

Mayes says his son's goal is to fit in his dad's Stormtrooper costume one day. Until then, he'll have to settle for the Doctor Who and Firefly costumes the family planned for this year.